“Christ has risen!” “He has risen indeed!”
Millions of Christians around the globe greeted one another with those triumphal words on Easter Sunday. And yet, many of us who declared that marvelous truth two days ago, functionally disbelieve in the resurrection.
Do you ever despair of the grip of sin on your life? Does it feel as though you will never shake that addiction or stronghold?
Many of us are more comfortable living with guilt and shame than we are with victory and freedom. Many Christians are more comfortable with Paul’s reminder that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) than we are with his promise that “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we are united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom. 6:5).
Both are true, of course. We have sinned and will continue in sin until Christ returns (“If we say we have not sinned, we make him [God] a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 Jn 1:10). But we do not live as those without hope or power. Paul declares with confidence, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). We don’t battle against the flesh in our own power. We fight by the power of the resurrected Christ within us. It is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27).
Is your faith stuck in the grave with Christ? There can be a temptation to think that we are somehow more humble when we live in defeat. After all, didn’t Paul call himself the “worst of sinners”? Christians live in the reality of both Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday simultaneously. We recognize the depth of our sin and the fact that we still await the completion of God’s redemptive work when he returns again. We are not perfected. But let us not live as though Christ still lies in the grave. During his forty days after the resurrection, Jesus appears to the apostles ordering them not to leave Jerusalem “but to wait for the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4). What is the promise of the Father? Jesus tells us in the next verse “for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now “ (Acts 1:5). It was through the power of the Holy Spirit that they performed signs and wonders. The Holy Spirit transformed Peter from denier to bold (and imprisoned!) preacher. We receive mercy and forgiveness at the cross, direction and guidance from the Word of God, but power is from the Holy Spirit.
In Philippians, Paul promises the believers that, “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it” (Phil. 1:6). If you are in Christ, you have his resurrection power. You are not trapped in guilt and condemnation, but in freedom and hope.
Do you have a resurrection faith?
He has risen! He has risen indeed!
You Might Also Appreciate our Do You Have A____Faith? Series:
Part 1: Do You Have A Gethsemane Faith?
Part 2: Do You Have a Cry of Dereliction Faith?
Part 3: Do You Have A Holy Saturday Faith?
Part 4: Do You Have A Resurrection Faith?
Part 5: Do You Have a Pentecost Faith?
Photo by Pisit Heng on Unsplash